3274 réponses à ce sujet

[theprogram.smith]

This being the spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series, I was definitely expecting more role playing elements out of this game.

The action elements was definitely improved. I thought that the abilities trees were an improvement compared to part 1's linnear talent trees. I found the faster combat pace to be fun.

However, I thought that the role playing elements were severely lacking. I found character development to be 1-sided. Aside from my character's combat prowess, there was nothing else I could add to my character to make him unique. No skills & perks like those found in Neverwinter Nights. Or something else to substitue for skills so that I can make my character stand out from the rest of the Hawke's other people play. With the severly limited character development options, I felt that my Hawke would turn out to be similar to most of the Hawke's out there that others are playing.

I also found the game environment to be lacking in role playing elements. There were too many static objects. So many doors were present that do not open. So many NPC's were present that will not interact with me. I only get to talk to NPC's if they're part of a quest. The environment feels more like an action game that an RPG.

As much as I am a big fan of RPGs & I would like to play only RPGs all the time, if developer's are designing RPGs to play as action games, then why don't I just play Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed, Arkham Asylum, Infamous... & why are these RPG game designers trying to make action games? Why don't they just stick to making super duper awesome RPGs for people like me? I'm sure there's tons of players like us who will purchase enough of their games to satisfy their investors.

Modifié par theprogram.smith, 17 mars 2011 - 02:49 .

[Nyreen]

Mir5 wrote...

Does anyone else think that the characters are a bit too over the top?
They're great, but but some go so close to being bland stereotypes that it starts breaking logic. Especially Merrill, no one would continue being so damn ignorant for so many years.

Fenris. Dear Maker, his head is so far up his nug-hole. Quit waxing poetic and take a chill pill, seriously!

[Buckarama]

It seems to me the game is okay but doesn't really seem to go anywhere - act1 2 and 3 are all more of the same. The main plot line is too shallow to keep all the side plots interesting.
The fact that you had DLC ready at release is just proof to me that you were more interested in chashing in than to make a great game.
There are good elements - I do like the character animations - the rogues doing the Ray Parks' Dark Side Jedi moves is cool, mages seem to be getting there due, I do miss the warrior damage dealer, or maybe I just haven't found it yet.
Inter party relations is terrible, can't do anything without making someone mad - I would love this to be toned down a lot - If I'm doing great things for the world they should follow and shut up!
This seems to be no more than a set up for DA 3 Mage Wars - ( no spoilers so I'll say no more on that)
The corner cutting in level design is painfully prevalent - it's okay to make us go back and forth from time to time, but the same dungeon over and over is just being lazy about your level desgin. The only time I felt I was truely out doing what heroes do is in the deep roads and yet you even make that over and over again.

Stay true to your vision worry less about the $ - this really, really hurt you on this game.
I still like the game, but when I think "I" can do better - you guys aren't doing your job.

[tsalehpour]

Wow, I cannot remember the last time I anticipated a game this much.

I have finished the game and I must say, it is a really good game. But, as a sequel, I did not appreciate it as much. The whole game felt like an introduction to, erm, Dragon Age III?

• What happens after Awakening? I do not know. The game did not tell. I was thrown into a completely different story, in a completely different place. I felt no connections to the prequel--it really felt like another game.
• At times, I felt like all I was doing was staring at loading screens (which, however, looked amazing aesthetically).
• The game did not contain the same depth that the prequel did. I felt the characters were actually pretty flat and predictable: Isabela being the rebellious and reckless one; Anders the frustrated and exploited one; Aveline the loyal and fair. After realizing this, they never surprised me anymore (with one exception, of course).
• There was no environmental variation. In the prequel, I had the pleasure of travelling around in many different, amazing places, discovering new cultures and discourses. This was not the case in Dragon Age II. Instead, the game offered a holistic view of Kirkwall over one decade.
• It was not as good, story-wise. However, I will not motivate this statement as it will be considered a spoiler.

All in all, it was an amazing stand-alone game. But it did not really feel like Dragon Age. But I do have to add that the new graphic system was really amazing, and offered much greater flow and frame rate. I only wish the loading time would be quicker.

[Ieldra]

This is my review of DA2. I have separated it into three sections. I have also given ratings. Please note that a 10/10 would mean that I can’t think of ways to significantly improve it. So it should not be surprising that no aspect of the game gets a 10. I hope I have made this spoiler-free enough that it can stay in the General Discussion forum.

For those who don’t want to read the wall of text, here’s the ultra-short version:

*The roleplaying experience: mostly really good, but marked improvements and new useful features in some aspects are countered by degradation in others. 8/10. Could’ve been a 10/10 with very little work (see the details). 
*The combat experience: The basic concepts of combat mechanics are sound but overblown gore, over-the-top-animations, cheap special effects and overuse of enemy waves have made a dreadful mess of things. 3/10. 
*The gameworld experience: The same rich gameworld as DAO, but its presentation has suffered heavily from paring-down-to-the-essentials and rushed development, and exploration is very limited. 6/10.



The roleplaying experience (character interaction, companions, companion quests, story and visuals relating to all that) (8/10)

Reference: DAO 8/10, ME2 8/10. Improvements exist but are countered by degradation in other places. Summary: The scenario is interesting but doesn’t function according to expectations, character interaction is noticeably different (and improved IMO) over DAO, but is still clunky in places. Companions are interesting but missed opportunities with their quests are very noticeable. Most NPCs look good but it’s hard to make a good-looking Hawke.

(1) The scenario
The decision of the development team to move away from the stereotypical save-the-world plot has to be applauded. Instead, we get what can be described as a character-defining story. It is mostly not about the events, but about how the decisions you take as you’re embroiled in these events shape your character. It is an attempt to improve role-playing, and I like it. However, such a scenario only works as intended if the protagonist’s freedom from the demands of a restrictive main plot and the additional time we’re given in terms of the game world results in more freedom of action and the ability to shape the events of your life and the small part of the world you’re assigned to. DA2 fails to present us with that. Instead, we are more on rails than ever. In DAO, we could affect the world through several important choices about the places we visited and Ferelden as a whole, and we had several options in the final decision about who ruled Ferelden and who killed the Archdemon. In DA2, everything culminates in one two-pronged decision, and – to add insult to injury – it doesn’t even make a big difference in the end. Even some defining events of the protagonist’s personal life are predetermined and we can’t even affect *how* they come to pass. While given the premise of the game, making a difference was never the point of it all, a game where you have many options for making no difference in the end is somewhat disappointing.

(2) Dialogue scenes and the dialogue wheel
That we now have dialogue scenes instead of simply dialogue was one of the best changes between DAO and DA2. This element has also noticeably evolved from the ME games. The new tone/personality markers are a very much appreciated addition and move character interaction into the right direction. Also there are now opportunities to make companions contribute to the scenes, romance options are clearly marked etc.. All in all this could be the perfect dialogue interface.

However, the wheel still suffers from its old flaw: the labeling is often misleading. I ask: why the hell is it so important to have a cap of four or five words or so on the labels, that the players’ knowledge of what they’ll say has to suffer to such an extent? So here’s something I’d like to scream at Bioware:

CREATE LONGER AND MEANINGFUL LABELING FOR THE WHEEL, DAMN IT!

The screen is wide enough for a lot of text. There is absolutely no reason not to have the first sentence my character is going to say as the label. Complete!!! I’d like to know the reason why that is not done. It is incomprehensible. It also distances me from my character mentally and emotionally, and in a role-playing game, that’s something just not done.

(3) The protagonist’s personality in dialogue
I appreciate the opportunity to give my protagonist different personalities by using the tone/personality markers, and have that personality reflected in cutscenes. That’s a very good addition to the roleplaying aspect of the game and a marked improvement over ME2, where I was often annoyed at the protagonist’s fixed tone. For the same reason though, things feel a little clunky at times when you change your tone. Perhaps that’s unavoidable, but it makes it all the more important to use meaningful labeling, because then at least you can see if the content of your line will match your general personality, even if the tone might not always match perfectly.

(4) Companions and companion quests
As so often, the companions and your interaction with them are the saving grace of the game. They’re all interesting and present themselves convincingly. They are…characters…in the best sense of the word. They’re also very much better integrated into the main plot in that they can contribute in substantial ways, and some of their own stories are intertwined with the main plot. Very good. Party banter is back and as good as ever. Also very good.

However, the companions fail to inspire the same level of connection as the companions in both DAO and ME2. I can only guess at the reason, but the lack of a rich backstory for some of them might play a part in it. Compare what you come to know about Leliana and Zevran in DAO with what you come to know about Isabela and Varric – to take the Rogues as an example. Isabela’s and Varric’s backstories are mainly restricted to what you need to know to understand their roles in the game, and even there it barely scratches the surface. Leliana’s and Zevran’s backstories are a rich tapestry of events, Isabela’s and Varric’s remain nebulous. The same with Alistair and Avelline. If you ask “Who is Alistair” or even “Who is Thane” or “Who is Miranda”, you’ll be able to tell a story. Ask “Who is Varric” or “Who is Isabela” and you’ll get a set of personality traits instead of a story. They’re still written well, but less complete. Fenris is the only character whose past I can envision with some detail; and possibly Anders if you know him from Awakenings (which I haven’t finished yet).

That may also be the reason why, although there might be as much interaction with them as in DAO, or even more (that’s the impression I get when sitting back and considering things carefully), it feels as if there is less while I’m playing. We have more situational dialogue with characters and less that tells us something substantial about them.

The character quests are nice but mostly too short. In ME2 I was annoyed that the team members’ stories took up so much space since there was a real pressing main plot in the background that should have gotten more attention. In DAO the companion quests were cursory but I didn’t mind that for the same reason. In DA2, we have a ten-year time frame where companions’ stories could have been explored further without detracting from the story, and yes, the companion quests are quite a bit less cursory than in DAO, but they still don’t come close to the level of ME2’s NPC quests.

(5) Companion visuals
Within the constraints of the changed general looks of dwarves and elves (see the game world section below for more on that), the companions all look very nice. They have their own faces, and their outfits mostly look good and fitting (as opposed to ME2’s, grr). With the high-res texture pack some of them actually look amazing.
However, not being able to customize their appearance is highly annoying, especially since you find lots of stuff your protagonist can’t use. In spite of that, I could live with it, had it not the consequence that the character’s appearance tend to stay the same even where completely inappropriate. Which brings me to the next part.

(6) Romance scenes
I can’t help but notice that Bioware’s romance scenes have gone downhill since ME1 and become increasingly tame. That a big game manufacturer buckles before some extremist TV network’s propaganda may be understandable, but it has done more damage to Bioware’s reputation - not only in my eyes - than a complete failed game would have. At least Isabela’s romance scene stops at a point where we would expect to see a little more of her…. And the third dagger was a nice touch and made me laugh. Merril’s however is as bad as DAO’s scenes. Actually, the mood of the scenes (the three I have seen) is mostly OK, but the visuals…. As I’ve
said several times about the ME2 scenes: I don’t need to see everything, but what I see should be convincing.

(7) Character creation
Apart from the hair, the character creator leaves something to be desired if you come from ME/ME2, particularly for a femHawke. The biggest detracting factor is the inability to change the shape and the width of the mouth. Mouths are hugely important for a character’s appearance. I appreciate the new hairstyles, but the presets aren’t different enough and the inability to change the mouth shape tends to make my Hawkes appear too similar.
Default femHawke is a blast. I only wish she was available as a preset so that I could change the hairstyle. Default maleHawke is OK but has the same problem, and I’d like to remove the beard. My appreciation of the default characters is marred by the suspicion that options were deliberately removed from the character creator in order to make us play the defaults.

The combat experience (setup, skills, mechanics and visuals) (3/10)

Reference: DAO 9/10, ME2 7/10, ME1 6/10. Summary: The new skill trees are nice, team tactics are a good idea but need a major overhaul, overuse of enemy waves reduces enjoyment considerably, and the combat visuals are so dreadful I am hard-pressed to find words for it.

When I look at the skill tree, I see a lot of potential. When I consider the higher difficulties, I notice that there you might actually need all those nifty little additions you get by using team tactics and combined skill/spell improvements. As it should be. But the plain fact is in spite of that, combat is not enjoyable. Because of its insane speed, the ridiculous overuse of enemy waves and the absolutely dreadful visual effects and animations, It is a tiresome chore and increasingly as I play longer, I can’t wait to be done with it. In ME2, I’m always tempted to up the difficulty to Insanity because only there am I challenged to use my abilities to the fullest, and I only set it lower in some games because I don’t have the time to play all my Shepards on Insanity. In DA2, it should be the same way, but it isn’t. Instead, I’m always tempted to lower the difficulty to Casual just to be done with the combat faster, *and* the combat will likely be the reason I won’t replay the game more than once. If at all. The uneven difficulty doesn’t help. I usually play more for the story and interactions than for the combat and I'm very tolerant of suboptimal combat gameplay. That my enjoyment of a game as a whole is significantly reduced because of the combat is almost unheard of. DA2 qualifies, to my extreme disappointment.

Here’s what should – must – be done to make combat enjoyable:

(1) Reduce the use of enemy waves, reduce the overall number of enemies and improve initial positioning to something more plausible.
It is not believable that every enemy encounter consists of an ambush of 50 people/monsters materializing in waves out of some extra-dimensional hiding space for you to cut them down, fry them or whatever, and for almost every encounter to be an ambush where they suddenly appear all around you. The number of enemies in CRPGs has always been ridiculous, but that’s no reason to push that ridiculousness up to eleven. It also makes combat predictable in a tiresome way. That’s not to say that you cannot adapt your tactics to the setup, but if people’s reaction to them is “(groan) not again!” (I see that sentiment on the forums often) and it gets progressively more annoying as you play the game then I’d say something is wrong with the whole setup.

(2) Lower the combat movement and animation speed
DA2’s battlefield is a confusing mess that leaves you almost unable to use tactics…well…tactically. One reason for that is the insane movement speed of enemies and allies alike. I’ve always been the “slow and sure” type of player, but don’t think I have paused combat quite as much as in DA2 ever since I played TOB: Ascension. I use some ability, but things move so fast that I can’t be sure that they’ll be of any use any more. I’ve never played a game where I targeted a spell on an enemy that was cut down by an ally before it actually hit as often as in DA2.
In addition, the insane speed makes things look absolutely ridiculous and “gamey”. It destroys suspension of disbelief in a part of a game you spend a great deal of time with. 

(3) Create more intuitively plausible team tactic combinations – and keep the old combinations where applicable.
The upgraded Stone Fist spell does additional damage to…..*disoriented* enemies? WTF? What happened to shattering enemies frozen brittle (sic!) by the Cone of Cold? There are lot of unintuitive state-dependent bonuses in the skill tree, but this example is actually offensive, because it replaced an intuitive effect that was present in DAO with an unintuitive one for the sole reason to reduce the spell combinations within one tree or class. After all, team tactics aren’t team tactics if the combinations can be used by one character, so let’s remove the old unwanted stuff, plausibility and consistency be damned. Yes, I find this offensive. Very much so.    

(4) Tone down the gore and the combat animations
DAO’s gore level was already inducing headshakes. I don’t quite understand the appeal. Do people actually think that *adds* to the experience? Is that why DA2 pushes this part, too, up to eleven? It was bearable in DAO because other aspects of combat were actually awesome, but DA2’s dogmatic “philosophy of the awesome” is, there’s no way around it, just plain wrong. For if the so-called “awesome” becomes common, then it ceases to be awesome and becomes over-the-top silly instead. The finishing moves in DAO were awesome because they were relatively rare. The animations in DA2, where your characters strike poses instead of making combat moves every two seconds, work together to create a visual effect where I fear to show the game to my friends for sheer embarrassment by the suspicion that they’d think I might actually enjoy this trash.

(5) Create less cheap special effects.
I haven’t tried all spells yet, but comparing the special effects of the Elemental school with that of DAO, I can’t believe how much cheaper they look and sound in DA2. The firestorm and the cone of cold are the worst offenders – I can see the polygons, damn it. I feel as if in a ten-year-old game.

(6) Let me zoom out farther.
Enough has been said about this, I don’t need to repeat the reasoning. But I should add this: if being more in the middle of things were actually more visually appealing, and if the combat speed were reduced, I might be willing to overlook this, but as it is my face is pushed into the cheap special effects and the overblown gore and combat animations in addition to reducing my ability to play tactically. Really, that feels like adding insult to injury. Thanks a lot.

The game world experience (lore, in-game presentation, exploration and visuals) (6/10)
Reference: DAO 9/10 (10/10 with modded textures), ME2 7/10, ME1 7/10. Summary: DAO has set new standards with its game world and its presentation, and DA2 fails to live up to its predecessor.

(1) Lore and its in-game presentation
One of the features I appreciated most in DAO was its incredibly rich game world. Not only did the Codex give a lot of stories, lore and background information, some of that background was given screen space in meaningful sidequests, particularly in Orzammar. The Codex is still there, and that new Codex entries pop up instead of instantly vanishing into their own section is an appreciated change, even though I only read half of it while playing. The sidequests, though, are gone. How I miss the likes of Dagna, or Sister Perpetua, Bella, the minor characters who were unconnected to the main plot but served to enrich the world. Maybe it is unfair to judge DA2 by DAO because DAO was so incredibly rich that it set new standards for a video game’s fantasy world, but to see so much of that gone in DAO’s sequel is sad.

(2) General visual impression
As for the game world visuals, using the high-res textures pack, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a mixed bag of the amazing and the drab. When you first arrive In Kirkwall, it looks amazing. But the re-used textures soon smother any appreciation, particularly in the outskirts. The re-used locations get on your nerves more and more as you play, and drab-looking locations (Wounded Coast, Lowtown and Darktown, almost all dungeons and mines) are so omnipresent that they even detract from the enjoyment of the better parts.
The same applies to Hawke’s appearance. Some outfits looks really nice, some look drab where they should look nice.
The new look of the elves deserves a special WTF? What did you think, Bioware? Move away from the established look only to present us with retextured Na'vi? What was it about the old facial structure that it had to be replaced? If they'd looked like that in the first game I wouldn't have minded, but continuity appears to be a smaller consideration with every new game, and that's quite a bit more annoying than the new look as such. Given the general new ugliness, it's a miracle that Merrill manages to look appealing at all.       

(3) Exploration
There are two questions I’m constantly asking myself while playing: (1) “Why can’t I jump over that 10-cm-high line of rocks?” And (2) “Why does this place look like the last one?”. Regarding (1), it is more or less OK in the city, but the Wounded Coast could’ve been a large explorable area with lots of stuff, more or less interesting, to be found. Instead, we’re limited to 1m-wide pathways and a few small clearings, which not only limits exploration needlessly, it also makes long roundabout walks necessary to reach a location I might want to revisit. 
About the reused locations I don’t need to say anymore than has been said elsewhere. At least they should have made the effort to cut the unused sections off cleanly so that they don’t show up on the map window. Re-using locations so much is bad enough, but to make it glaringly obvious to the players and expect they don’t care, that’s insulting.  

So much for my review. I'll keep playing. The roleplaying aspects are good as mentioned, but if the combat is a sign of things to come Bioware will have lost me in future. What I learned from DA2 is that I won't pre-order any Bioware games any more after ME3.

[Jaller666]

To me, Bioware completely ruined the Dragon Age universe with this game. Hopefully they' will get enough feedback to see reason.

1) The more fast paced action was welcoming to Mass Effect 2, but that's because it's a completely different universe! It has become more like a mindless hack'n slash game. Origins had a true strategily RPG feel to it, but this is completely ruined in Dragon Age 2.

Bioware, please change the Dragon Age formula back to the original one, and stop trying to make a game similar to the Mass Effect universe.

2) What the hell is up with the simplicity of this game? Character custimization, skills, spells, everything is made into a simple Harry Potter like game.

3) More diverse areas please! I must have hacked my way through the same celler/dungeon at least five times in different areas and belonging to different factions, because the level designers obviously fancied using the copy and paste a bit too much. Also, let players experience different cities, instead of having them being "stuck" in Kirkwall. The game is extremely repetetive and tiresome because of this.

4) Please oh please, let players choose different races! It was amazing how your race affected the npc's behavior towards you in Origins, and making something as great as that, and then all of a sudden turn away from it makes no sense to me. It's so sad that you're forced to play as a human no matter what, since Hawkes story easily could have involved a Dwarven or and Elven family.

- All in all, for the next Dragon Age game (if there is going to be one), stop rushing a game out and take your time to make a big and epic game. Origins was approximately 20gb and Dragon Age 2 is only 9gb? It's sad how much smaller and simpler you've mad this sequel.
Dragon Age 2 is still better than a lot of game out there, but when comparing it to the original one, it fails drasticlly on so many levels.

[Ansa]

stubbieAussie wrote...

I must admit - after horrible demo I did not even buy the game, simply downloaded it from torrent just to see how bad it is. And yes, it is just as horrible as I expected. Sorry, this is not worth any money, not after I have seen what games this company could make.

A plus for actually admitting in an offical forum that you didnt buy the game.

A negative for trying the demo and hating it but still supporting pirating by downloading a torrent of the full game.

And because you didnt buy the game I think you have no right to post an opinion about the full game here. [smilie]../../../images/forum/emoticons/angry.png[/smilie]

I see your point, but honestly - this is the one and only topic opened for me so far, since I am did not register as DA2 customer.
And I believe I have the right to claim my voice, after investing my money into every possible game from this company before (BG1+ToTSC, BG2+ToB, NWN+all exps, NWN2+all exps, Planescape: Torment, IWD, IWD2, Jade Empire, ME, ME2, DA:O)
Too bad, but I will not be bothered again with Bioware games if they keep the current "awesome" course in EA-gamemaking 

[br003]

Finally got the sig edition. I guess my only disappointment is the red light district really needs some refugees from the Pearl. What they have now is WEAK. I can't wait for some DLC.


Oh and if you're in the rose (I think that's it, ) inspect the merchandise s'all a'hm sayin.

[Hude91]

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers to Dragonage: Origins, Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect2.

Aside from the problems with the combat i still found it enjoyable. But DA2 just didn’t deliver what Origins did. Or even Mass Effect 1 and 2. It’s missing memorable moments, characters and enviroments.

The scenery is absolutely lazy designed, there are literally 2 or 3 caves in the whole game which you enter from different angles or are closed partially off, but are still the same. No changing environments. You might blame that on the short development time but I’d much rather they took some more time.

The characters plain suck. There are some interesting ones like Varric and Merril but the rest of the party is just boring or annoying. I literally played the whole game on hard difficulty without a tank in my party because the only tank option is such a stupid character. Having almost no chance to actually interact with your party didn’t help. They just aren’t very fleshed out characters. For each party member there are 3 or 4 options to have a conversation in the whole game. Aside from these you can’t even talk to them. They are limited to right-click-oneliners like some random “nobleman” or “patron” you might find in the streets.

There is no role playing in the game. Hawke will always be the same Hawke. With Mass Effect you had at least 2 clear options, Paragon and Renegade. In DA2 you get no options what so ever. There are to few options to have an impact on the story. The story doesn’t branch out at all, and the main story is missing it’s sense of epicness. There isn’t even a real villain. I might be playing the game again when some good mods are out, but for the time being it just isn’t worth the time I would put into it.

The graphics almost haven’t improved since Origins. Which is a shame if you look at other AAA titles on the market. Sure there was only 1.5 years development time but they had to use the time somewhere and I don’t see where.

Between all these flaws I’m seriously underwhelmed by DA2 as a whole. It delivers absolutely no memorable moments. And from a Bioware RPG I just expect a compelling story, fleshed out characters and great settings. Where Mass Effect 1 had you running up the Citadel Tower, Origins had you fighting through Denerim while chasing the archdemon and Mass Effect 2 had you kill a giant human-reaper, DA2 has no equivalent. Despite these flaws I still put in about 3 days of nonestop playing into the game and it might draw you in if you can overlook such problems. But it probably won’t.

DA2 has praise coming from “professional” sites, magazines and shows at the moment, giving it a metacritic score of over 80 (PCGamer even declaring it “RPG of the decade” 1 year into the new one). And it just doesn’t deserve it.
It’s a mediocre title with a rushed EA release written all over it.
 

Modifié par Hude91, 17 mars 2011 - 07:14 .

[Frenrihr]

Daeltaja wrote...

Jesus I think I must have played a different game to half the people in this thread!

Loving it so far, nearly finished now. Clocked 40 hours so far. A part from its obvious shortcomings, it's a cracking game. Loving the challenge on Nightmare, only had to turn down the difficulty once at the beginning, damn assassin's. Then I learnt how to deal with them. Dialogue is great, the story has hooked me in and dare I say, far more involving than Origins. I just watched a video of the Varterral boss fight in Witch Hunt and it actually look's astonishingly dated. Combat is slow and extremely cumbersome and I can't imagine going back to Origins ever again.

I can see the direction that Bioware wanted to take this, is finally clicking with me now. I don't feel like the game is dumbed down at all, sure there is less exploration and location variety, but it starts to not matter after a while.

I can understand why some (most..) Origin fans are peeved at the new direction, but that doesn't make this the abomination of a game that they're making it out to be. Far from it actually.

It's a bit of a flawed gem. Perhaps the ending might make me hate it, judging by the amount of threads on it. Funny, as Eurogamer and a few other reviews mentioned how it has one of the most memorable climaxes in recent memory, or something like that.

I respect peoples opinions and they are entitled to voice them. But the eejits who start new threads asking Mike Laidlaw to step down or Bioware to pass the torch, or even being linked to the Devil (Plz don't ban me ) just make us gamers, or RPG fans, look like a bunch of whining, ungreatful losers who have nothing else to do with their time. It's pathetic. What happened to constructive criticism people? (Sorry, this is not really aimed at this thread..)

I support you Bioware, I've played every single one of your games and have fond, fond memories of pulling my hair out in Baldurs Gate. Keep on doing what you're doing and my hard earned euro's will be sent your way.

I love the idiots that keep posting this LOVING ****s.

[Trefalen]

Okay, I played the trial and ordered the full version. That in itself should tell you I liked what I saw. I've read many reviews, some make valid points, some are just whining. Fair enough...

Pro:
I liked the new combat system (did they use the ME2 graphics engine?), the lower cpu use (approx -25% lower use on my machine compared to DA:O), I even liked the new conversation system. I really liked how it looks on my  graphics card on high setting w/Dx11.

(I will add more when I've played through the full version I'm sure.)

Con:
I didn't like that I couldn't break agro, stand and die is hardly a true fighting choice in every encounter. He who fights and runs away...

I didn't like the cut scene transition to and from live, it's just a freeze frame. It seemed like the game locked up. A quick fade out or something would have looked far more polished.

Which brings me to my next dislike. The game is no where near as polished as DA:0, and I'm sorry time spent developing  DA:O vs time spent developing  DA2 is not a valid argument. The powers that be obviously pushed it out. So they agreed to take their lumps by doing so. I hope they can release a patch soon to adress some of the issues, or at least publically admit them, and not wait as long as they did with DA:O.

More after I play the full version.

Modifié par Trefalen, 17 mars 2011 - 08:07 .

[DalishRanger]

 I am copying most of what I wrote on my deviantART journal. I think I managed to keep it spoiler-free, but if I missed something, feel free to bring it to my attention so I can fix it.

Also, warning: This is pretty long. 

I'll break this down into different aspects: Story, characters, gameplay, visuals, and technical areas. Each category I will divide into what I liked and disliked.

As a frame of reference, I will also include my settings/specs and the Hawkes I played with.

Platform:
PC (Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit) | 8 GB RAM | Intel i7 core | ATi Radeon HD 5770 | 32" HD Vizio TV used as a primary monitor/speakers

Gameplay Settings:
Difficulty: Casual
Graphics: Everything on highest setting, including using DirectX 11 and very high texture detail.
Audio: Voices max, music 50%, sound 30%
Mods: Yes, unlocked default Hawke's hairstyles and beard to make them available in the character creator. Nothing else though.
DLC: Exiled Prince, Black Emporium, misc items

Hawkes:
Declan: Male rogue (daggers) | Humorous personality | friend romanced Isabela | imported from Legam (mage origin) | ~ 35 hours
Kenley: Male mage (destruction) | Aggressive personality | friend romanced Merrill | imported from Fasais (Dalish origin) | ~ 33 hours
Armela: Female warrior (two-handed) | Diplomatic personality | rival romanced Fenris | imported from Ahmed (casteless origin) | ~ 30 hours

An average Origins run for me was around 35-40 hours, so DA2 wasn't that much shorter for me. I did not complete all the quests/side quests in each play. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's still several quests I haven't tackled yet. For both games.

Gameplay:
Liked:
- Combat speed and overall controls. They are pretty much the same as Origins, just faster paced. And it's still easily possible to pause and play more tactically. I like to balance between pause and action, and combat served me well in that regard.
- New talent symbols. The diamonds = activated and the hexagon = sustained talents are a nice quick reference.
- Dialogue system
- Personality-based battle cries and cutscene comments
- Improved animations in both combat and cutscenes
- More character creator options
- Family looks changing based off of Hawke's preset and skin. It's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.
- New ability trees being branching rather than straightforward
- Friendship/rivalry meter and gaining special abilities based on that for each companion.
- Crafting. I much prefer finding resources that can be reused than lugging around 99 elfroots in my pack all the time.
- Quick heal slots for potions automatically in the quick bar. Saves me from having to take up slots for it.
- Cross-class combos. It really helps re-enforce the whole "team" aspect of a party-based RPG.
- The map and the day/night switch. Nice touch, and it does allow us to see parts of Kirkwall at different times of the day with fewer restrictions than Origins had. It also helps give the feeling that time passed and everything's not crammed into a single day or two. :lmao:
- Hide helmet option in the gameplay settings.

Disliked:
- Waves of enemies. I didn't care for it much on the Xbox version of Origins, and I don't care for it much here. Not a major issue, but sometimes I'd think I was done with a fight, and then suddenly another wave drops in. I find that more annoying than exciting.
- Style of the menu screens. I like most of their functionality, but they feel a bit bland. I much preferred the parchment feel of the Origins PC interface.
- The timer for potions. I understand wanting to avoid potion spamming, but I think the cooldown is TOO long. It becomes a real pain in the arse in tougher fights. I don't really play these games for the challenge, but for the general story and characters. A bit of challenge in combat is fine, but stuff like excessively long potion cooldowns has lead me to near game overs, and would've led to actual game overs if I didn't use a cheat or two to stay alive. Yeah, I used a few console cheats. I hate reloading, sue me.
- Exploding enemies. I don't exactly dislike this, but I don't really like it either. It's a bit overkill, especially if you're playing a two-handed warrior. Happens a lot. And you can't turn it off. I figure it's part of Varric's exaggeration and it doesn't bother me very much, but it did get an eyeroll out of me a few times. At least it's not as bad as exploding heads in Fallout 3 every. Single. Time. I got a headshot, though.

Overall:
I think gameplay has improved since Origins while still retaining much of the basics. It still feels like Origins, just more reactive. It comes off as a tactical/action hybrid to me, and I like it. It's somewhere between the reflexiveness of Jade Empire and the auto-attack of Neverwinter Nights. Despite a few minor gripes, I am very pleased with the gameplay.

Story:
WARNING: Possible spoilers ahead.
Liked:
- The more personal, rather than "save the world" focus. I like save the world/galaxy/country stories just fine, but one of the reasons Baldur's Gate II is still a favorite game of mine is due to the personal story focus it has. It feels more intimate and tends to build a stronger attachment between me and my character.
- The passage of time. It's nice to see a place and its people change over the span of several years, rather than a short, chaotic period that spans only a few months or so.
- The chantry/templars versus mages aspect as a core element. DA2 is very political, and while current day politics bore me to death... put political and social issues in a fantasy or historical tale, and I'm fascinated.
- Lots and lots of gray areas. I found myself sympathizing with multiple parties, even as I could condemn them for their actions. There were plenty of genuinely difficult decisions to be made, and more than once I stared at my screen, debating between options.
- Storytelling. While basic elements of the plot might not be the most original or interesting, the way they are presented is very compelling.
- The qunari and their culture. We get to see more of who the qunari are.
- Seeing more of Thedas. While DA2 starts in Ferelden, it's a very, very short part of the game and the focus is Kirkwall, in the Free Marches. I hope the Dragon Age series continues the trend of visiting different locations in each installment. Thedas is a very interesting and compelling setting, and I can't wait to see more of it.
- Returning old faces. There were many cameos and returning characters, minor and major, from Origins. For the most part, they transitioned well and it was nice to see them again. I also liked how some wouldn't appear, or would appear in a different matter, depending on the Origins story you imported. It helps reflect the "world-shaping" goal of the series.
- The framed narrative approach. Varric's conversations with Casandra are amusing, and some of his exaggerations are downright hilarious. It's an interesting approach for a game (if not the first), and I very much enjoyed it.

Disliked:
- Time passage. I like that so much time passed, and to at least some extent, it really does feel like time has passed. But in some ways, it's hard to believe time jumped years at a time. This is a difficult thing to implement, though, and I don't think Bioware could've pulled it off perfectly anyway. The attempt is good, but could use some tweaking.
- Lack of an overall goal. Well, this part isn't totally true. Each act has its own obvious goal (go to the Deep Roads, deal with the qunari, etc) and they do help to drive that act. However, when connected together, it just doesn't flow quite as well. It's not bad, but again - something that could be refined should Bioware return to a personal story in the future. And I hope they do!
- Short last act. Act 3 on my first play with Declan took me many hours, because I thankfully avoided main quests. However, there's only about... Three main quests before the climax, and it's VERY easy to go to it too soon. Act 1 was packed with things to do, and it was harder to jump to the Deep Roads early, because the expedition wouldn't leave until Hawke completed a certain amount of key quests. In the end, this makes the start of the game feel more active, but the end thins out a bit and it's almost over too soon.
- White lilies. (But I love that I hate that part. It's done VERY well, so in a way I actually like it. It simply just fills me with heartache going through it).

Overall:
In many ways, I enjoy the story more than Origins. I like the social focus and the importance of family/companions play. Those are usually the most appealing aspects of a story to me. It's a good set up for some BIG world changing events. The storytelling is excellent, and combined with interesting characters, moved me more than once. Including to tears at one point. Literally. The only problem is that near the end it feels a bit short/sudden, and it feels like we see snippets of tension rather than getting a better look at the whole picture. But even with this fault, it's good.

Characters:
Liked:
- Multiple quests per companion. Granted, there's only one per act (usually), but it's still more than most games like these.
- The evolution of relationships over time. It's nice to see friendships, rivalries, and romances grow over time. Not just between Hawke and the others, but between the companions themselves.
- Banters. Banters are FANTASTIC. Had me roaring with laughter more than once. Especially since Hawke joins in sometimes. It really helps to give the feel of a group of friends wandering around the city and carrying on conversations, even as they get into trouble.
- Humorous Hawke. A goldmine of hilarity. By far my favorite dominant personality to play. Humorous Hawke is basically a troll, and what a fantastic troll he/she is. The fact humorous lines often lead to friendship boosts with Varric and Isabela is also a nice touch.
- Gifts. They've been improved. You can no longer spam for approval - the gifts actually feel important, and they remove that loophole of cheating to get a high relationship rating. In fact, depending on your current status with a companion, you can actually get rivalry points for a gift - or even have them reject a gift outright. It feels much more realistic.
- All the companions were well-written and I loved traveling around with them. The only one I'm a bit "meh" on is Sebastian. He's not flat, but he just doesn't flow quite as well as the others. And I'm still not sure if I like him or not. He has some great lines and interactions, but sometimes he annoys me as well. Still, that awesome Scottish accent wins him some points.
- Aveline's Act 2 quest. I haven't giggled so much doing a side quest in... Well, perhaps ever. It's even better if you bring Isabela or Merrill along.
- Isabela, Merrill, Aveline and Varric were my favorite companions. I also loved Bethany during Declan's play - they had an awesome brother-sister friendship dynamic that you don't usually get to see in fantasy games. Carver I loved to hate - or, rather, like with frustration. I'm not one for broody types, but Fenris I liked for the most part. Not because he's broody, but because he's such a blunt **** it's hilarious. Anders I liked, but not as much as in Awakening. Still, I thought his changes and role in the story were very interesting and he's still very compelling. But I didn't feel like bringing him along as much as the others. Also, Dog and his relationship to companions is even more amusing than the first game. I love the mabari - probably more than in Origins, and I loved that mutt too.
- Romances. Especially Merrill's. Hers was my favorite out of those I played. The scenes that were there were good and for the most part, I felt like relationships developed between time jumps. Also, the sex scenes are MUCH better and MUCH less awkward than Origins. They're not free from awkwardness - I blame the innate "uncanny valley" nature of most game graphics for that - but they're a vast improvement from the underwear grinding of Origins.

Disliked:
- Romances. They were good, but they also felt spread a little thin sometimes. While the actual number of conversations are more or less the same as romances in Origins, because of the time jumps, they feel thinner. Actual scenes themselves are executed well, but I feel like there should've been more in between. Most of the stuff is in Act 2, leaving 1 and 3 feeling a bit sparse in that area. Act 1 is understandable, but at the very least Act 3 should've had a bit more.
- Companion conversations. For the same reason as romances. I loved the individual conversations and the evolution of a platonic relationship over the years, but as with romances, it still felt thin sometimes.

Overall:
Companions are just as well written as those in Origins. They grow and develop over the years, and I find it easy to relate or sympathize with them. This is something I've always considered a general strong point for Bioware though, so I'm not surprised. The only real failing here is that I wanted more than what we had. Which is a good issue to have, if there's to be any issue at all.

Visuals:
Liked:
- The new look of elves. They look much less like humans with pointy ears and actually a separate race now. One returning Origins character didn't look that great with the new style, though. But otherwise, the new elves are good in my book.
- Armor and weapons. For the most part, I like the new armor and weapon styles. There were a few individual sets that felt "meh" to me, but that always happens to me in games.
- Artwork in the main menu/loading screens/Varric's narration. I LOVE these. SO. MUCH. If Bioware ever released a book on the loadscreen art alone, I'd buy it.
- Faces. Overall, faces are improved and more distinct than they were in Origins. I also like the improvement in darker skin tones and more hairstyles/beards.
- Qunari. I love their redesign. They feel less like giant humans. Also, the arishok is awesome. Both in visuals and in voice.
- Lighting. Lighting is so, so MUCH better than in Origins. My only true gripe with the lighting is that sometimes the lower front teeth on someone's mouth will be so dark they look like they're missing. I'm not sure if this is due to one of the many apparent DirectX 11 issues DA2 has, but it is odd to see.
- Environments. There's a lot of beautiful (or wonderfully ugly) locations in Kirkwall and its surrounding areas.
- Generally improved graphics. Origins looked nice on my PC on high settings, DA2 looks even better. It's not the best eyecandy, but for a Bioware game I think it's very nice.
- As mentioned in gameplay, improved animations. There's still some awkwardness inherit in the engine, but people felt more alive and active in DA2 than they did in Origins.

Disliked:
- Clipping issues with some beards on certain male presets. It seems like some beards don't work with some preset shapes, which is a bit limiting in creation. However, it's preferable to the skeleton cheeks in Origins. Cheeks still get gaunt with beards, but nowhere near the way they did in Origins. For the most part, it looks natural.
- The new style of a few returning companions is... Eh. Most look great, a few look... Off. I can tell it's them, but they don't feel quite right.
- Fingers. They didn't look good in Origins either, but DAMN. Fingers are often WAY darker than the rest of the body and on Isabela, they look especially blah. This normally wouldn't be an issue, but there's more animations that involve hand gestures this time around, and I find myself looking at hands more often. Not a major problem, but still distracting sometimes.

Overall:
Minus the glitches covered in the next section, the visuals are very nice. Not the top of the line for current games, but they never are with Bioware. I'd rather have more content than eyecandy, anyway. What is here is very good with high settings, and I found myself drawn to a lot of the character visuals and environments. I've heard they look washed out on consoles, but I've only played the PC version on high settings, so I can't vouch for that one way or the other. Body language and expressions are improved, though they still sometimes feel a bit lacking or awkward. In the end, it's still an improvement from Origins with a more distinct identity.

Technical:
Rather than break this down into a like/dislike, I'm just going to cover the technical issues I encountered. For the most part, the game is stable and I rarely encountered anything game stopping... But it is still noticeably buggy. I played using DirectX 11 instead of 9, which has been reported to be pretty buggy. My guess is a lot of my visual issues might be rooted to this, so I hope they're fixed in a patch.

WARNING: Some minor spoilers for Origins and Awakening ahead.

Issues:
- If I left the game paused for a few minutes, sometimes the area shadows would start spazzing out and moving at a rapid rate. They'd disappear once I unpaused, but it was still odd.
- My romance with Leliana was not recognized in her cameo. For both Legam and Ahmed. What's amusing, though, is while she didn't seem to remember my dwarf casteless, she DID remember Isabela and fooling around with her at the Pearl.
- During Declan's play, someone mentioned the Architect was alive. When I had imported a Warden who killed him.
- Isabela never changed to her alternate outfit beyond the first two seconds from when she should have had it. Then in her next shot, she was back to her default. I never saw the alternate outfit on her again.
- During Kenley's play, Aveline never changed into her final armor. She only had the second armor. In Armela's play, during a conversation cutscene with Sebastian, she suddenly had her prologue armor on. But only during that one scene. When I Saw her again, she was back in her final armor. Very strange.
- Merrill's act 3 conversations are out of order. During both Declan and Kenley's plays, I got her post-quest conversation... Before I even did it. So I sort of spoiled it for myself. This didn't happen with Armela, though.
- Occasionally, weapons and shields would glitch invisible during a scene before reappearing again. For no reason.
- The murder knife floats in the air when being sheathed in one scene. Every time, no matter who I'm playing. Works fine the rest of the time, though.
- During the Isabela and Merrill romance scenes, there's always a few flickers in the graphics. They last only a second, but they're distracting.
- I might be remembering this wrong, but during my Armela play, Meredeth had a different weapon for most of Act 3 instead of her regular one. I can't say more without spoiling major things, but... It's a BIG mistake. And I have no idea why it only happened with Armela.
- During Armela's play, at one of the climax cutscenes, the lip syncing and voices were out of sync every time I played the scene. This also happened when meeting Fenris, only his eventually worked after a few reloads.
- Random lag. Out of the blue - sometimes during/right after big fights, but not always - the framerate about DIED. It happened rarely, but just often enough to be annoying. And it happened during every playthrough at least a few times.
- Possibly the most annoying bug for me: Once in a while, for some reason I'd be unable to click on anything or anyone. The mouse moved and and keyboard controls worked, but the pointer wouldn't change for talking/using objects/selecting doors. Basically making the game unplayable. I'd have to exit out of DA2 and reopen it to fix it. Like the lag, it only happened once in a while, but just often enough to be quite frustrating.

Overall: This is where Dragon Age 2 trips up the most for me. While I don't have as many issues as some other players have reported, this is the buggiest Bioware game I've played, including Origins - which could get buggy itself. This is both with and without mods. As said before, the only mod I have is added the default Hawke hairstyles to the character creator. The bugs in this game aren't enough to ruin my experience, thankfully. They are, however, prevalent enough to warrant attention and be distracting sometimes.

All in all, I really enjoyed Dragon Age 2 and I know I'll be replaying it more in the future. It's not a perfect game and suffers from some annoying bugs, but it's worth playing if you liked Origins, especially if for the story/characters.

[Bosco191]

i'm only about six hours into DA2 and these are my impressions so far, the good, the bad, and the ugly...

GOOD:
- the areas do look alot more visually detailed and appealing
- i like the fast-paced action and battle sequences
- giving the main PC a voice - finally!

BAD:
- can't choose race
- can't equip with multiple weapon sets (as a rogue, this is really irritating)
- can't equip NPC's armor, which makes loot drops of anything not your class useless, except to sell
- don't know about other platforms, but on PS3, the character creator doesn't seem to do much except for change eye color, lipstick, nose and hair; i've played with all the settings and it doesn't seem to change the facial structure at all, unlike DA:O
- i'm not a fan of the ability trees and too many limits on what characters can do and equip with; no two-handed sword for avaline - boo!

UGLY:
- wtf happened to the elves? elves are supposed to be beautiful creatures, i.e. galadriel, arwen, legolas, etc. these look more like those weird avatar creatures.
- accents. lose 'em. they sound terrible

non-catagorized as yet, but i'm not sure where this story is going. it doesn't seem to have a purpose. as i mentioned, i'm only a few hours in, but all i'm doing is trivial b#ch work with no clear objective. in DA:O the objective was staring you in the face; this game just doesn't seem to have a purpose yet.

i'll post my complete review when i finish the game...

[SteveGarbage]

My (quite long) review at Greywardens.com

Dragon Age 2 Review: It's ... Different

[Morning808]

My Review is:

Dragon Age 2 in its own right is a really good game! The game has a much more enjoyable combat system (For me) and it's story is not that bad. Sure the characters are not that intresting but nore was Origins! Origins (Not adding Awakening) only had Morrigan, Alistair, and Shale where as DA2 has Merrill, Anders, and Varric (Which I'm starting to like a little) so to me both games are a bit even.

I like Hawke more then the Warden, for the simple fact that he is voice since both characters are the same...and no the Warden was played just like Hawke is! Both have the same story freedom. But problem is Hawke has no emotion in his voice when needed like at the end of the white lilys part! (Do not look it up if you don't want Spoilers)

I do really miss outfitting my teammates with armor I want them to wear and would like to see that come back in Dragon Age 3 if it comes out and the Elf design doesn't look bad but their bodys need to be redesigned to fit their heads (Merrill looks great till she is laying in bed with you...its much more creepy then the human's hands).

I didn't go into this game expecting Origins 2 (Thank god I didn't since I would be with the hate crowd but I'm not like that for any game) all I was expecting was the fun Bioware games give and it is way far from disappointing.

But if I do put it up next to Origins, Origins would win since I could outfit my teammates to my liking and it had Morrigan which to me was one of the best written characters I have ever came across in any video game, so if I truly did put DA2 up against Origins it would be completely unfair.

I would much rather review it by it's self then compair it to Origins and turn into one of the people who bash it for stupid reasons.

[Crunch Black]

sleepyowlet wrote...
[snip]
Conclusion: It should be obvious that I was deeply disappointed with the game. This is not a role-playing game, because there is no role-playing whatsoever involved. DA2 is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Movie.

Damn wish I'd said that earlier

Exactly, it's not a role playing game. The previous wasn't really but at least it had more RPG like features (multiple race choice etc).  It's basically a story that has been streamlined to allow quicker choices and clicking via xbox and playstation controllers.  Graphically some parts are beautiful, I love those improvements in visual aspects of combat when frozen (moving it's way too quick to see) but most are bland, smoothed, simplified and repetitive as are many things in this game.

Just a thought for future true Dungeon and Dragon based RPG such as what occurs in AD&D for example ;- 
found treasure in a real RPG is not usually "Junk" it's sometimes very dangerous, sometimes you are not sure if you should pick something up (trapped, very evil, cursed etc). Sometimes it's very interesting or rare or very occassionally wonderful and makes your week .  

Modifié par Crunch Black, 17 mars 2011 - 10:04 .

[Tristam25]

I actually thought DA: O battle animations looked really robotic. Mages-poking something constantly rogues-kept doing the same stabbing animation with both hands alot of the time warriors-hardly swung thier weapon

DA: 2 may be a bit exaggerated, but to me is far better. I like seeing some force behind attacks, not just tapping the archdemon with your sword and somehow you killed it.

Modifié par Tristam25, 17 mars 2011 - 10:05 .

[SANNAFABICH]

Terror_K wrote...
Reposting this in here as per request:-
First of all, I'm going to start off this review with a callback to something that happened prior to the original Dragon Age game. Actually, more something that happened a couple of weeks after it released. When I played Dragon Age: Origins and had finished it at least once and briefly started another playthrough I came onto the forums and apologised to the developers of the game...

I really liked your review and feel I can relate to your experience with DAO.
Unfortunately, it makes me want to NOT buy DA2. I feel like I'll be disappointed.

[HippeusOmega]

Like:

Combat System (enjoyed the fast paced combat system)
Graphics (the new in-depth looks you gave the town and characters)
Voice-acting for Hawke (this was a nice addition as i like my characters have some personality)
Romance Options (Was nice to have bisexual relationships with anyone especially girl on girl action)
Isabella (What is to say about her. I find it the most attractive character you guys ever made)
Default Hawke (I enjoyed the fact that i liked the default looks so much)
Marbari War Hound (Like the fact you brought him back and as a free sustainable)

Dislike:

Kirkwall (Have to say i really hate this place for the simple fact 98% of the game takes place here)
Reused Environments (I swear i must've seen you use the same environment maps all the way through)
Numerous Quests (Have to say i didn't enjoy the fact you rammed so many quests down our throats)
Flemeth (I was expecting her to play a much larger role in the game but she got shoved aside)
Customization (You gave us hardly any room to customize our characters or companions)
Morality System (Found that there was no black and white options in this game just grey areas)
Lack of Race Choices (I found that i missed my Dwarf and Elf race choices in the game)
Story Timeline (Seems like Awakening just doesn't fit the Dragon Age 2 timeline)

Netural:

Story: I have to say i started enjoying it then hating it. Just seems you shoved so much at us that the quests overshadowed the story somewhat. I also have to say you made me hate a character i quite enjoyed in the previous game. Not gonna list who cause of spoilers but i think ppl who played will know. Then the way you guys ended the game making it seem like the game was Dragon Age 1.5 and not the Dragon Age 2.0

Dialogue Wheel: I enjoyed having this from Mass Effect but it always seem like it jerk to the side or wrong option. Could've been my controller though.

Conclusion: I do like the game but it felt so incomplete near the end and had so many mini-quests in Kirkwall. I pray when u do DLC for Dragon Age 2 you'll let the champion and his LI at least explore different parts of the free marches. Or add more areas in to the Free Marches area during the main campaign.

Modifié par Panznerr, 18 mars 2011 - 12:15 .

[defpotec22]

-          Reused environments. This has probably been said a thousand times on these forums, and is probably my single biggest complaint with the game. Not only is the same cave/mine/mansion used in every quest/side quest, there’s also the issue of exploration. I have to re-explore every environment in the game each act to find loot/designs/gifts? And the environments either barely change or don’t change at all from act to act? Not fun.

-          Kirkwall. I don’t mind that the game takes place in and around one city. Okay, maybe a little. But that’s because Kirkwall doesn’t feel like a city. It feels like a small collection of environments that are representational of a city. The “red lantern” district is… a brothel, some crates, and a guard. It’s underwhelming. If Bioware were to do something like this again, I would suggest looking at games like GTA4 or Assassin’s Creed. Yes, these are obviously very different types of games, and I doubt an open environment would work for the DA franchise, but they’re far better at simulating cities.

-          Combat. This is tricky. My first play through was on a two handed warrior on normal mode, and I found it a bit too easy. Towards the end of the game I wasn’t using a tank at all, and was happy when there were finally enough waves of enemies to make combat last longer than thirty seconds. Right now I’m playing a mage on hard mode, and while the challenge is good, sometimes it’s infuriating, for the wrong reasons. Get trapped in a corner with a spider hitting you? Even if you’re at full health, you’re dead, there’s no getting out of that. Assassins? You had better just hope they target a warrior or your mabari (I love the sustained dog). Mages? Get ready to reload your game if they’re blood. Archers? Hide behind a corner and hope they don’t agro you because you looked at them funny. It’s challenging, yes, but it doesn’t feel particularly balanced as much as it does frustrating due to a few enemy abilities.

-          And yet… I love that there is no more shuffling. I love that it’s faster and I love that I can actually use aoe abilities on the mage without fear of friendly fire.

-          Waves of enemies. If they spawned in locations that made sense, okay. But sometimes they literally just appear out of nowhere. Spiders descend from… the sky? Darkspawn just appear behind my mage. They don’t pop up like demons or descend like spiders, they’re literally just there. It’s silly.

-          The story. This is tough, because the story is both very ambitious and vague in its goals. What I’ve realized is, this isn’t a story about Hawke (a “he” for the sake of argument). Sure, he’s important, he’s how we perceive the world and he makese some decisions, but the story, really, is about Kirkwall. The events in act 1 are just a vehicle to get Hawke into a more important position within Kirkwall for act 2, which in turn puts him in a more important position within Kirkwall for act 3. Hawke’s rise to power is necessary for us to be involved in the events of Kirkwall, rather than he himself driving the events of Kirkwall. At times, he seems like a passenger. And once we finish the game and see what the new status quo is, the entire game feels more like a prelude or prequel to something bigger and better, it left me wanting more, and not in a good way. Which leads to…

-          The framed narrative. I like it and its use, but I don’t see why it was necessary to have the story cover “ten years.” All the events in DA2 could have easily transpired within, say, five years, and it would have been more believable, because the characters wouldn’t have had to age significantly. I can’t emphasize how important it is that in a story that takes place “over ten years,” no one ages. It’s not believable, and it either lazy or a silly oversight.

-          Act 3. The fact we barely see Orsino or Meredith throughout act 1 or 2 severely hurts the game. They’re not given time to develop as characters, which makes them more like representations of opposing viewpoints, rather than people.

-          Companions. Seriously great cast, with Merril and Varric being the stand outs, for me at least. All the banter is great, and all the characters seem mostly well developed, believable, and relatable. I understand that many people wish that they could talk to their companions at any time. I only sort of agree. I wish the love interests were a bit more interactable post act 2, but I think what Bioware did was eliminate pointless clicking. How many times did you go to talk to Garrus in ME2, but he had to calibrate something? Or talk to Sten in DA:O, who had nothing new to say? DA2 eliminates this by having character interaction via quest, which in turn helps produce more cinematic exchanges. I like this, however, there should be more of them.

-          Customization. I don’t mind that all characters wear the same thing. I understand a characters appearance helps to characterize them. And personally, I hate inventory management in games with multiple party members, so only having to adjust weapons and non clothing items works for me. It would be nice if each character had an unlockable alternate outfit that you could toggle. I loved Merril, but once I romanced her, I seriously wished I could get her back in her green outfit, rather than the white one.

-          Talent trees. Not much to say here, I like them. However, characters are a little too locked into their roles. I had Anders with me for 2/3 of the game because he was literally the only person that could heal. I made a decent tank spec for Fenris that worked, but it was tricky. Carver can’t use a shield? I seriously don’t understand why. Merril can’t heal? I really wish she could. Isabella can’t use archery? This actually doesn’t bother me, but it does some people. The major roles (tank/healer) need more options.

-          Same day DLC. This is something I’m morally opposed to, but will always get suckered into depending on the game. The sustained mabari is fantastic. Literally. The Black Emporium feels like a wasted opportunity for some crazy quests. Sebastian is no Shale, and I really never use him that much, but his presence towards the end of act 3 is so powerful, at that point I couldn’t believe he wasn’t part of the main game.

-          Sound and graphics. The soundtrack is great, the voice acting is fantastic. I’m running a slightly older system, so I can’t turn my graphics past medium, but the game still looks great. However, I don’t see why I can’t adjust anisotropic filtering in game because my card is dx9. I can adjust it in the video card menu and it does affect the game, but really this is an annoyance.

-          Art design. I really like the familiar yet different art of DA2. It looks better than DA:O, though occasionally I wish the game was more detailed. Still, with the exception of bland Hightown, all the environments (as few as there are) look great. However, the new darkspawn look awful. They look weak and mindless and silly, with little to no variety in body type. The great thing about them in DA:O was that they looked menacing with a purpose, even if they weren’t particularly smart. The new ones are just blah. The new elves, qunari and dwarves all look better.

-          Dialogue wheel. I prefer this system, though there are a few instances where more accurate paraphrasing is needed.

-          Importing saves. Not as impressive as importing a ME1 save to ME2, but still appreciated and used well.

-          The Merril glitch. There is a glitch in act 3 that will cause her post-act 3 companion quest dialogue to trigger before the quest itself. This is so widespread and gamebreaking that I’m shocked it made it into the game at all, and seriously hope it gets patched soon.

I enjoyed DA2. I found it less sluggish and more fun than DA:O, but it has some serous issues, and I wish there was more of it. And no, more fed ex quests wouldn't suffice.

Modifié par defpotec22, 18 mars 2011 - 12:55 .

[Tirigon]

Mind = blown.

Ieldra2´s review is amazing, actually better than some professional ones I have seen on gaming sites....

[ImmortalArbiter]

I was typing up a long review, but I figured I can be concise and get my point across:

We know you rushed the game.  The lack of variety, the bugs and glitches, the lack of promised features, the dumbed down gameplay (you call it streamlining, but when we play an epic RPG we don't WANT it to be streamlined), the still crappy graphics, the ridiculous attack animations...  I don't know what you were trying to accomplish (except for making a quick buck), but this is a good way to kill the franchise before it really takes off.  

If the next Dragon Age is is in development for under two years, I'm buying it second hand and EVERYONE here should do the same.  Send EA a message that we do NOT want this crap.  Dragon Age 2 is a joke of a game, and I hope the developers know they let us down.  Though I suspect they just see us as a paycheck and don't take pride in their work anyway.

[dzizass]

Graphics: 2/10
The ugliest AAA game since... hmmm... DA:O? Not only some of the landscapes are butt-ugly, the architecture is a laugh, weapons are bigger than people carrying them, some NPCs (Fenris...) are fanservice for Twilight fans but also you'll be seeing every bloody location 50 times during the game.

RPG-experience 0/10
This is not an RPG at all. It's an action-adventure game. Your characters don't have any social skills. You don't play a role, since you don't really control your characters most important decisions. You are guided by idiotic quest markers on every turn.
Also: your statistics and level don't mean a thing since your enemies level-up with you. So what that you deal twice as much damage as you used to, when the enemies have twice the health points??? EPIC FAIL.


Combat mechanics 4/10
Since combat is the focus of the game, it should be fun at least. Unfortunately it's less than average. There's no tactics involved since enemies spawn out of thin air right behind you in every single combat encounter. However, no manual skills are required either. You just have to click your way through all those encounters except for 3 bosses. The improvement since DA:O is that the fighting goes a little quicker this time around. Thankfully, cause there's a lot of it.
The good thing is that you have a lot of skills to select from this time
around, unlike DA:O where only mages had a decent number of skills.

Plot 6/10
Well, it's actually not a plot, since you don't have an overaching intrigue, but it's still better than anything that BW has written - you don't join an ancient order, you don't save the world, you don't turn out to be Revan/Child of Bhaal. Which is a good thing. The frame narrative though turns out to lead you nowhere. BioWare, you should have played Alpha Protocol in order to use the device properly. Still, it's the best BW story to date so: 6/10. Above BioWareian average.

Dialogues: 4/10
They are quite varied in quality: some of them are abysmal, while others are decent. It actually depends on the the NPC e.g.: Anders was terribly written, but Varric was actually quite likeable. Still, dialogues are better than in DA:O but much worse than ME. Unfortunately, the dialogue wheel is very badly written and you never know what Hawke is going to say, sometimes to the point of a facepalm.

Overall: A waste of time. Probably better than DA:O, but still, the game is quite terrible. If you like RPGs go play Fallout: New Vegas or some older CRPGs. If you like action-adventure, go play Mass Effect or The Witcher, which are also RPG-flavoured but are prettier, better and more fun.

[Fallen Prophet]

I was a little disappointed in this game to tell the truth. I love the first dragon age I played through it 5 times. This one I think I will just stop at one play through. The dungeons were all the same just different areas closed off. The enemies just keep appearing out of nowhere. In the first one every area looked different and the bad guys you see on screen are what you are going to fight. Why change the darkspawn look did they evolve in just a few years time? No real character customization for your party members. The inventory screen was horrible it worked why better in the first one. In this one all your equipment looked the same in the inventory screen except maybe a different color. Also not to many armor set options like in the first one. Rouges can only use daggers I loved how in the first one I could upgrade to use swords two handed. Another thing is your decisions don't seem to really affect the game it all turns out the same no matter what you do. The story was ok though it kept me involved, but I need to feel closure and I did not when I beat this game. It is a good game just not as good as DAO. I would give it a 70 out of 100. DAO was at least a 95 out of 100.